1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer apparatus, and more particularly to a printer apparatus achieving suppression of noise.
2. Description of the Background Art
A printer apparatus including a paper feed mechanism for feeding paper one by one by means of a paper feed roller and a friction pad has been available. Here, a printer apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-221132 will be described by way of example. In the printer apparatus of this type, as shown in FIG. 10, a paper feed roller 106 and a friction pad 105 are disposed above a paper carrier plate 102 for carrying the paper. Paper feed roller 106 is attached to a prescribed shaft portion 104.
A spring 108 for pushing paper carrier plate 102 upward is disposed below paper carrier plate 102. In order to lift paper carrier plate 102 by making use of pushing force of spring 108 concurrently with rotation of paper feed roller 106, a cam 110 is attached to shaft portion 104, and a cam abutment portion 112 abutting on cam 110 is provided in paper carrier plate 102.
In this printer apparatus, cam 110 shown in FIG. 10 is initially in abutment on cam abutment portion 112. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, cam 110 rotates in a direction shown with an arrow 131, and a state where cam 110 abuts on cam abutment portion 112 is released. Then, paper carrier plate 102 is lifted and paper 103 is fed by paper feed roller 106 and friction pad 105. Here, in order to mitigate impact due to sudden lifting of paper carrier plate 102 as well as to suppress noise, an elastic member 113 such as a leaf spring is attached to shaft portion 104 in a manner adjacent to cam 110. The paper feed mechanism in a conventional printer apparatus has thus been structured.
On the other hand, the conventional printer apparatus suffers from the following disadvantages. As described above, in order to mitigate impact due to sudden lifting of paper carrier plate 102 as well as to suppress noise, an additional member such as a leaf spring serving as elastic member 113 has been necessary. Moreover, such an additional elastic member 113 should be attached to shaft portion 104 in a manner adjacent to cam 110. Accordingly, the number of parts as well as the number of assembly steps have increased, which has turned out as obstacles in reducing manufacturing cost.